Liberal Arts Services

Czech Film Series: Conspirators of Pleasure/Spiklenci slasti by Jan Svankmajer

Thu, March 27, 2014 • 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM • BUR 231

The Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies is proud to announce the sixth screening of the renowned Czech Film Series. All films will be shown every Thursday at 6:30pm in BUR 231.

This week's screening will show Jan Svankmajer's full-length feature film Conspirators of Pleasure/Spiklenci slasti (1996). In this film, six seemingly average individuals indulge in their complex fetishes with surreptitious care. A mousy letter-carrier rolls bread dough into balls, which she shoves into her nose and ears before sleeping. A shop clerk, fixated on a television news anchor, builds a machine to massage him when the anchorwoman is on TV. One of the clerk's customers makes an elaborate chicken costume and an effigy of his neigbor, the latter of which he crushes with a boulder. The neighbor, in turn, has her own effigy of him, which she whips and drowns in the basin of an abandoned crypt. The anchorwoman, feeling neglected by her husband, buys some live carp in order to enact one of her fantasies. Her indifferent husband, a police captain, builds unusual and elaborate artifacts in his workshop from objects bought from the shop clerk's store and stolen pieces of fur, which he rubs across his body. Conspirators of Pleasure was nominated for the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1996; at Czech Lions in 1997, it was nominated for Best Sound and Best Design Achievement, and Barbora Hrzánová (in the role of the mail carrier) was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Films are free and open to the public.*

Films are in Czech with English subtitles.

Other films in this series:

April 3Rex-patriates (2004) by Nancy Bishop – The series’ only live-action film—a mockumentary of expatriate life in Prague—it still features a touch of things puppet. The film will be introduced by one of its producers, Jeffrey Brown, and followed by a Q&A.

April 17 Toys In The Attic (2009) – A stop-motion animated family feature film by Czech director Jiří Barta. The English dub version was directed by Vivian Schilling and features the voices of Forest Whitaker, Joan Cusack, and Cary Elwes. The film was a Czech, Slovak, and Japanese co-production.

*While some of the films in the series are suitable for viewers of all ages, many of the films include substantial adult content. (Puppets have sex too!) Please check film ratings online or email markhopkins81@gmail.com for a recommendation for children.